Hospital records of children admitted to the department of Paediatrics, University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, from January 1981 to December 1990, who were diagnosed to have acute rheumatic fever (ARF) were studied. 134 children satisfied the Jones' modified criteria, thus giving a hospital incidence of 21.2/100,000 paediatric admission per year, of which incidence of first attack was 15.8/100,000 per year and recurrent attack was 5.38/100,000 per year. The M:F ratio is 1.39:1. Majority of cases occur in the 6-11 years age group with 6 cases encountered below the age of 5. The Indians had a higher relative risk to develop both the first acute attack as well as recurrences with a relative risk of 2.4 and 4.10 respectively as compared to the Malays. Majority of the patients, irrespective of the ethnic group, came from families with low income.